Less than two months after it was swept to power in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) seemed headed for a split with warring factions hurling charges at each other and refusing to back down from their positions on the eve of a crucial meeting of the party national council Saturday. Hours after senior leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan accused AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal’s supporters of “telling lies” to isolate them and promised to “fight for the party’s integrity”, a recording emerged of a conversation between Kejriwal and party volunteer Umesh Singh in which the Delhi chief minister calls his detractors names. Read: AAP heads for major showdown as rival camps trade allegations In the recording, a purported sting, Kejriwal is heard saying: “Ye kya tamasha hai aapka ki saare milkar chalo..un saalon ne. unhone hame haraane mein koi kasar nahi chhodi Delhi chunaav ke andar. kisi aur party mein hote to unke picchhe laat markar bhaga diya hota saalon ko. kamine log hai ek number ke (What is this farce of all going together. they left no stone unturned to get us defeated in the Delhi elections. had they been in any other party, they would have been kicked on their rear and booted out. these are rascals of the first order).” He also threatens to walk out with his 67 MLAs and float his own party. He tells Singh that he and his friends can run AAP: “Ab dekh lete hain kya karna hai, nahin toh mein 67 MLAs lekar alag ho jaoonga, aap log chalaiye Aam Aadmi Party.mujhe kuch lena dena nahin hai.” Saying “enough was enough”, Kejriwal supporters said it was time for Yadav and Bhushan to exit the national council. Leaders like Naveen Jaihind promised to move a resolution Saturday to demand their removal. Read: True colours of AAP out in open, it's 'Arvind-Arvind Party': Congress Bhushan and Yadav called a press conference where they said claims that they had agreed on five conditions to resign were “absolute lies” and accused the other camp of making moves to manipulate the national council. Bhushan said: “We have written to (AAP national secretary) Pankaj Gupta asking for the meeting to be videographed, and that a list of members should be given to us. None of this has been forthcoming. They are telling absolute lies and not one of the conditions that were laid down have been met at all.” In the letter to Gupta, Bhushan and Yadav said it was irregular that a national executive meeting was not called to decide the agenda and manner of the national council. They accused the party of using deceit to ensure decisions go their way, pointing out that they had not been given a list of national council members, that those who should not be there had been invited. They called for a secret ballot. Underlining their insistence on a transparent council meeting, the letter stated: “All this needs to be done in order to avoid any unpleasant situation where members of the NC, who are dissatisfied by the proceedings of the NC meeting, can approach the Election Commission or the courts with regard to these matters.” Yadav also alleged that they were being set up by supporters of Kejriwal who were sending out “fake messages which asked for Yadav to be installed as national convenor”. “When we investigated the number, it was found that these messages came from a member who runs the AAP’s WhatsApp groups. This is clearly malicious and being done to defame us,” Yadav said. By evening, the Kejriwal camp hit back. Sanjay Singh, Ashutosh and Ashish Khetan called a press conference and said both sides had agreed on negotiations but “something changed” between 2 and 6 pm Thursday. “They had asked for several things in the letter and we agreed to all of them. In fact, I also suggested some things like adhering strictly to the principle of only one person from a family holding party posts. When they asked for increased transparency, we even said that not just candidates, but even office-bearers should declare their expenses,” Khetan said. While Khetan said Yadav told him that the five points in a note was “not a stumbling block”, Sanjay Singh alleged that their main worry was that some names be accommodated in the national executive. “They only wanted these names — Prithvi Reddy, Vijay Nair, Meera Sanyal, Atishi Marlena, Gul Panag, Dayamani Barla, Rahul Mehra, Raghav Chaddha, Maruti Bhapkar and Kiran Vissa. We agreed on this, and after a joint apology note was drafted by them, negotiations were on track at 2 pm. But at 6.15 pm, Yogendra Yadav called and said that they don’t trust us and matters will go to the national council. Then why the drama of negotiating for ten days? What powers were at work in these four hours,” Singh said. Yadav took to Twitter to respond to these charges: “Unnecessary confusion about list of names. These were names suggested by AK and Prithvi Reddy for possible inclusion in NE. If agreed these names were to be jointly proposed to NC for a secret vote. Don’t understand what’s the controversy here? Another confusion about a collective apology that I drafted. I said PB and I do not want personal apology for all the slander we have faced. Instead all he leaders who indulged in public mudslinging should offer apology to all volunteers and supporters. Still stand by it.”
